An ambulance in Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, returned an injured motorcyclist to where he had been in an accident after a hospital refused to admit him because he tested positive for COVID-19.
According to the Amagasaki fire department, an ambulance was dispatched to the scene of the accident along National Route No. 2 at around 11:50 p.m. on Aug 5. Kyodo News reported that a 21-year-old university student riding a motorcycle had collided with a car. A friend of the student, who had been riding alongside him, called 119.
When paramedics from Naka Fire Station arrived at the scene, the motorcyclist complained of an injured leg and was showing fever-like symptoms. The hospital where the ambulance was headed told the crew that the patient would be accepted if he tested negative for the coronavirus. He was given an antigen test while on the way to the hospital. However, he tested positive and was denied entry into the medical facility.
According to the paramedics, the student’s condition appeared stable, so they took him back to the accident scene with his consent. In the early hours of Aug 6, he began complaining of neck and back pain, and his father, who had picked him up at the accident scene, made an emergency call.
This time, an ambulance took him to a different hospital in Nishinomiya, where medical staff confirmed that he had suffered a fractured leg.
© Japan Today
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Mr Kipling
There are times when I really think JT needs a comedy section..... Apart from the broken leg, this would fit nicely. Where else in the world would an ambulance drop you back off at the accident site?
Mohan
Instead of returning him to accident scene, that medical facility should have accepted their incapability to handle COVID case and direct him to the better hospital.
Very rare to hear a medical facility to wash off their prime responsibilities
Alan Harrison
Does Japan have a proper, organised health system? Obviously not.
h0nz4
I can't imagine in Europe an ambulance would take someone to a hospital after an accident, they'd say “sorry mate, can't take you” and the ambulance would drop them off back where they came from. EMS in Japan works so strangely, it's scary to think I might need it one day.
Harry_Gatto
The hospital and the relevant staff who refused the patient should be named in this report and then interviewed live on TV to explain their actions.
virusrex
That is not what paramedics are supposed to do, by judging the patient requires a visit to the hospital means their duty is to do their best to do just that, not just to give up and just return him where they picked him up.
This would be like a doctor telling a patient he needs surgery to save his life but when he finds out he has no credit contradict himself and tell the patient he should be fine without the operation after all.
albaleo
I guess we could interpret the information in the article in various ways. Words like "refused" and "denied" are a little loaded.
Version 27:
Ambulance person: They can't take you in because of the positive Covid test. They say we should take you to Nishinomiya.
Injured person: Nishinomiya? That's miles away. Look, I'm feeling a lot better now. Can you just take me back to my motorbike?
Ambulance person: Are you sure? You're certainly looking a lot better than when we picked you up.
Injured person: Yes. I'm just worried about my motorbike.
Ambulance person: OK. We're going that way anyway.
Sanjinosebleed
Most stupid thing I have ever heard! The sooner they change to Covid classification the better!
John Noun
Covid is a massive taboo in Japan it seems. Which is ridiculous as it's everywhere.
Appalling behaviour from the health service.
Brian William Meissner
Finally Japan today starts mentioning this issue…. This treatment is inhumane. I’ve been denied access to emergency services twice since the beginning of the pandemic.
virusrex
That situation would still be terribly unprofessional and not what a paramedic is supposed to do. Part of the preparation is knowing that "feeling fine" is a terribly bad predictor for future problems and their duty would be to seriously warn the patient that serious risks to their health need to be evaluated properly, something that is not possible inside an ambulance by paramedics.
Not being able to recognized a fractured leg is bad, but not terribly so because not all fractures are evident without proper examination done by a traumatologist. But leaving a patient without that examination because he "appeared stable" is terribly bad, because the paramedics are supposed to be trained to understand it is easy for them to miss important problems.
Brian William Meissner
I just want to add this isn’t an isolated incident..
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/01/19/national/hospital-transport-difficulty/
Antiquesaving
Here is the problem in Japan and I am speaking from personal experience.
In my case (recent heart condition requiring surgery taken to hospital by ambulance) my son's chronic health issue that required multiple surgeries and being rushed to the hospital by ambulance on several occasions and including my own time as a paramedic in Canada before coming to Japan.
Japan has the equivalent to 911 and a central dispatch but only dispatch!
When my son was sick, when I was sick , we sat around in the ambulance as the crew called individual hospitals one at a time, asking permission to go there in my case it was yes on the first try, on one occasion with my son it was no one after another to the point I ran home got my car put my son in and drove him myself to the university hospital near our place that refused the ambulance. ( Once there they rushed him into surgery).
When I was a paramedic in Canada over 30 years ago, we not only got the call from the central dispatch but we were told what hospital to take the patient to based on multiple factors like distance, type of injury/medical condition, how busy the hospital was based on how many Ambulances had already been sent there, this decision was made by the dispatch centre medical personnel (doctor/nurses) the hospital had no choice or say in the matter.
This strange thing of the ambulance personnel calling each hospital is insane.
Luis David Yanez
Sadly, it hasn't been rare in these 2 years.
2 friends of mine, that had 2 different medical emergencies, and were treated horribly because the covid fear.
The first, he had a very simple skin infection, but doctors refused multiple times to even look at him because he had fever, and the infection got worse and worse. His hand got big as a balloon with fingers dripping pus and he started to have high fever all the time, until reaching almost 40 degrees and started to hallucinate, and then he called an ambulance, after a month of medical negligence.
He had to wait about 2 hours in the ambulance because no hospital wanted to see a patient with high fever, even as he had showed covid negative all the time he went to the hospital and was forced to get a PCR test to get ignored after it turned negative, but finally, after more than a month from his first symptoms, he was diagnosed when he was about to have a septic shock.
The second, got an overdose because he drank too many sleep pills, and was found by people in his house drowning in his own vomit and unable to move. An ambulance was called, and the paramedics, even after he almost drown in his own vomit, his face was full of vomit, and was almost unconscious, was put a mask over his vomit, and had trouble breathing as he was brought to the hospital.
He stayed there for 2 days, unconscious, but with a mask, none the less, and no one, not even their family members could visit the hospital, because covid.
rainyday
Absolutely insane.
Antiquesaving
This isn't just because of Covid.
The nextdoor neighbour had a heart attack ( this was before covid, the ambulance sat on the street for 15 minutes while they tried calling hospitals all refusing to take him.
My son was hit by a car on his was home from school in jr high (10 years ago) after they had picked him up, put a splint on his leg put him in the ambulance, etc.. they sat on the side of the road calling around for over 10 minutes as each hospital had one reason or another to refuse
My late wife dying from cancer sat in the ambulance at the train station again the ambulance personnel called hospital after hospital including the one she was being treated at, all refused. Finally a small hospital said Yes.
I then had to pick her up there to drive her to her actual treatment hospital in my car which they could not refuse her then.
This is a major problem in Japan and this type of article we read often.
Brian William Meissner
Antiqusaving thank you for writing your personal experience…. Yea this shocked me when I was refused because every hospital said no….. my wife says screw it next time if you can walk we are just driving…. It’s sad… in the US the ambulance just drives straight to the hospital
Antiquesaving
Actually it is just the latest excuse hospitals are using.
How many times was my son refused using "we are to busy" or
"we don't have a pedestrian at this time " (that one was the best he was 18 at the time but they insisted 20 was adult so refused the ambulance )
Japanese emergency rooms seems to not want to work.
Luis David Yanez
It's a mix of both. Things were already bad before Covid, but they got way way way way worse after covid.
Going to a hospital in these 2 years has been just horrible. Looking at the doctors and nurses caring way more about the patient covid status, if they are vaccinated, and that they wear a mask more than the patient in front of them with some life threatening condition, and many times getting ignored if it is not covid related is just sickening.
Antiquesaving
So note the "told the crew".
This is the problem, no centralised hospital dispatch system.
The ambulance crew needs to directly call each potential hospital, this let's them say "no" to the crew.
A normal system in most developed countries the central dispatch has the final say not only does the central system dispatch tell the ambulance where to go but tells the hospital it is going to take the patient like it or not.
As a paramedic in Canada over 30 years ago, I never once called any hospital, that was the dispatchers job.
rainyday
This is true. To add my own experience, I broke my elbow in a bicycle accident about twenty years ago. My wife took me to three different hospitals, all refused to even look at me. At the third they suggested we call around to check some others. This was before cell phones were common, so we asked if they would mind letting us use their phone. For context, this was in an empty waiting room with nobody doing anything, and me in excruciating pain holding an arm with a broken elbow. Nurse at reception just coldly refused and said there was a convenience store a couple blocks away with a pay phone and asked us to leave.
Ended up finally getting a doctor to look at me at hospital number four, more than two hours after the accident. Thank god it was just a broken elbow and not something that required immediate treatment.
Antiquesaving
I was rushed to the hospital by ambulance in November, 3 weeks in ICU.
The ambulance personnel told me they know more or less which hospitals will use excuses and what excuses, the paramedic said the latest was Covid and being used mostly by the hospitals that were notorious for refusing even before covid.
The hospital I was treated at never ask but did a covid test upon my arrival.
But the paramedics told me that just being a Gaijin was enough to be refused, they knew not to try certain hospitals because they would use
"oh a Gaijin, no one here speaks English (or insert a language of your choice) so we cannot take him/her)."
This one I personally got regarding my son even after explaining he was Japanese and more fluent in Japanese than French or English. We then got , well we don't know his culture, etc. .
Some hospitals will use any reason, they do not want any difficult cases, quick fast in out makes money the rest are not wanted.
SaikoPhysco
I guess a great selling point for any area to tout would be... our local Hospitals accept 90% of patients on the first call from the ambulance and 100% by the 2nd call. Jokes that makes sense aside... before covid this has been a problem. If you mention it to a citizen... they just shrug and accept it... when actually it is unacceptable. I love Japan's socialized medical system overall, but this is a glaring problem that needs to be addressed.
WA4TKG
Another “Only in Japan” Moment
smithinjapan
Good old Japan and its medical system -- we pay how much each month, for all our working lives, into a system that rejects people in car accidents, and pregnant women from more than 20 hospitals until they finally die searching for help? The hospital that refused him should be closed down, and its owners sued.
Mark
Sad and Funny and Disgusting at the same time, the Story is sad, the ambulance staff are funny, and the hospital I mean the entire hospital is DISGUSTING.
Hospitals, Doctors, Nurses, and the entire system was designed to provide medical care when needed, that is the purpose, and when a hospital refuses to treat a person in need of medical care then it is a violation of that person rights, the hospital should be sued in the court of law.
Gorramcowboy
Yet another facet of Japanese society that seems shiny and on the up and up to its citizens and the rest of the world, but beneath that sheen is a broken system that is in sore need of major revisions and overhaul.
I would have fractured my other leg in someone's backside at the hospital that refused my admittance if I were that motorcyclist.
shogun36
“Nah, don’t take me home where I can at least gather my thoughts and get some help. I’ll be good at some random spot in the road where I just had an accident.
Good looking out, Fam.”
Phil
There was a case reported last week with a guy in his 70’s that had hurt his leg. He was taken to hospital and they tested him before admission. Tested positive and hospital would not accept him. Took 35 hours for the ambulance service to find a hospital to take him. It was also reported it had beat the last record time of 20 odd hours.
Antiquesaving
The ambulance that picked up my children's grandfather several months back (he is 98 hurt his back shopping, I am not joking) after failing to find a hospital the ambulance just went without permission to the university hospital nearby went in dropped him on a bed in the emergency room and left,.
I wasn't there but my daughter was, the hospital staff was yelling as the ambulance personnel just walked out,
The local ward apparently gave the fire department the order that if no hospital accepts to just go where they please and forcibly drop off the patient.
Once in their hospital bed the law makes it their responsibility regardless how they got into the bed.
kurisupisu
This is absolutely disgusting and reminds me of medical stories from 3rd world countries.
However, if there are any people here wondering about which hospital to go to then I can personally recommend the Red Cross.
I have been treated many times there and have checked with their staff on their treatment policy and ‘yes’ even with a positive test for Corona, treatment will be given.
Rather than waiting for an ambulance, take a taxi if possible, get there and it is very unlikely that treatment will be refused.
justasking
The heck did I just read?
Japan has no sense of "emergency". There are no "rules" in an emergency. You invent the rules to save people.
It's the reason for Okawa Elementary School. It's the reason why Abe died due to blood loss.
El Rata
Yet another victim of the corona-circus! Why do we even care about who's infected or not?
JTC
Why did he go back to the scene of the accident ? Was it perhaps to retrieve his bike ?
Would he have been able to get a accident recovery vehicle to take him & his bike home - is that perhaps why he was waiting ?
Would like to have seen some more details here.
Alan Harrison
I can't imagine in Europe an ambulance would take someone to a hospital after an accident, they'd say “sorry mate, can't take you” and the ambulance would drop them off back where they came from.
It would be unthinkable almost anywhere in the world.
Alan Harrison
Fourth World Japan (Even a third world country would not do that).
GBR48
Project Fear has proved to be politically useful, and the Japanese government would quite like to remain in 2021 for as long as they can. But it comes at a cost. As that cost is borne by ordinary people, the politicians don't care too much. With no viable opposition, Japan will remain in 2021 just as China will remain in 2020 with Covid Zero for some time to come, if not permanently.
I've been taken to hospital several times in Japan and the paramedics are good at what they do. They may find this situation as frustrating as the patients (if not as painful). They can only do their job within the remit they are given.
Antiquesaving
I will take an educated guess at these questions.
I am going to say that he was probably not given a choice as to where they left him.
The ambulance/fire service probably has rules that prohibits dropping of patients anywhere other than a hospital.
To get around that rule, returning the guy to the place they picked him up and say transportation was cancelled would be the way.
So it is more likely the guy got tired of waiting and having "No" as a reply by every hospital and wanted out.
The ambulance crew not to violate the rules returned him to where they picked him up and called it cancelled.
As I pointed out, my son waited so long as the ambulance tried finding a hospital I was able to run home get my car take him out of the ambulance that was still sitting infront of his school calling around to hospitals.
I drove him to his regular hospital myself despite them having rejected the ambulance and he was again rushed into surgery.
This was many years ago long before Covid.
This has little to do with covid and has been a major problem in Japan since before I arrived 30 plus years ago.
Antiquesaving
Please explain what European country this was in and when?
Because you didn't say and untill quite recently quick covid test were not available or accurate as to be of use in any country I know of.
Bill Adams
Come again? He was denied entry to a hospital because he was ill? Err, right. I have been saying for a couple of years now that this irrational fear of covid has driven people mad, and I think this really proves my point!
Temyong
They said hospital beds are full of CoVid19 patients. Apparently that is false because they wouldn’t even admit a CoVid19 positive person.
WA4TKG
I was once hit by a car, directly across the street from a fire station, no doubt witnesses by dozens of people, including an ambulance driver. My entire leg was instantly covered with blood as were my white sneakers. Until I mimicked driving his truck to him, and pointed at myself, the guy just STOOD there, staring at me. He wasn’t going to do ANYTHING. THAT’S the Japan you live in.
hampton
My nearest hospital, which is the biggest in the city, takes the temperature of anyone trying to enter, and refuses entry to anyone with a fever of 37 degrees or higher. So, basically, sick people are not allowed in. This has been the policy since the initial Covid outbreak. Nearly all hospitals and clinics are essentially private, and they can decide who they treat. The health system makes no sense, but neither does the education system, the tax system or the pension system.
Wesley
Good grief! That poor guy.
Alan Harrison
I was once hit by a car, directly across the street from a fire station, no doubt witnesses by dozens of people, including an ambulance driver. My entire leg was instantly covered with blood as were my white sneakers. Until I mimicked driving his truck to him, and pointed at myself, the guy just STOOD there, staring at me. He wasn’t going to do ANYTHING. THAT’S the Japan you live in.
He was terrified that he would have to admit liability. If it were the other way around, he would probably be screaming what a victim he is getting as much attention as possible and then try to for sue more and more.
WilliB
Totally inexcusable. My first thought was that this article must refer to an incident in China, with Xis insane covid policies. But Japan??? I am disgusted and disappointed to see this bone head insanity here.
WA4TKG
No Alan, THAT guy did NOTHING.
He never even came over to me laying on the ground.
I was referring to the Ambulance driver, that took me to the hospital.
The cops got him..
I witnessed a guy riding a motorcycle that had just passed me and was hit by a car.
Nobody bothered helping him either....unbelievable. I was driving a work truck, and couldn't.
EuroJP
Japanese Medical System "Black Comedy". How comes they rank Japan sometimes on top list when comes to healthcare.
Country where drivers are selfish and don't do "Lifeline" when ambulance approach from behind. In some European countries this is punishable. However, most of drivers are aware that life can be saved.
In this country Ambulance staff must please for the way but mostly they stop on red light as everyone else. Then we have news: Mamonaku, shiboshita. あたりまえ。
Those who call for sue hospital can forget it. Bow and a few camera flashes will do the job and then back to business as usual.
kurisupisu
Several years ago there was much ado about stem cell treatments in the pipeline.
This has all proved to be completely false.
Japan is well behind cutting edge treatments.
For advanced treatments and ‘proper’ healthcare, I have done in Gaikotsu….
blue in green
This should clear up to many that "medicine" is a business.
The medical emblem of a serpent on a rod is in the shape of a dollar sign.
If your emergency stands to enrich the hospital, you are admitted,
otherwise, you have what you see here, not necessarily ineptness,
but indifference.
vic.M
Not rare at all in Japan. We had personal experience where my father in law had a stroke. We managed to get him in the car and took him to our main hosital where they said there were no doctors on hand. They claimed he wasn't so bad and that we take him home. By now he was dead weight and I said to the 2 people, if you can lift him in to the car we will take him back. They couldn't.
If you see ambulances at a scene that keep sitting even an hour after loading a patient, it is because the paramedics are searching everywhere for a hospital that will accept the patient.
finally rich
I seriously doubt these people can't even link the dots.
Probably the same kind of people who risk a heatstroke while masked up under a 37C sun, we gotta keep safe and alive after all.
sunfunbun
I've required emergency medical twice. The first was an auto accident and I was put in an ambulance. My vision is terrible and my glasses were thrown about in the accident, and I hit my eye/head pretty hard causing some bleeding and confusion. There were other scrapes and bruises, but no broken bones.
I indeed sat in an ambulance for over 30 minutes, as they tried to find an emergency clinic who would see me, and eventually, they found one. Once there, the care was fine as I got an eye exam from a university teaching hospital physician and was patched up and cleared with cautionary warnings should I have dizziness, etc.
The second time I went in myself to an empty emergency room at the Hiroo Hospital, where I eventually was seen by a staff doctor who gave little care to my very painful injury. I had likely crushed a ligament in my ankle/foot area and couldn't walk without severe pain. The physician didn't give me anything. Just looked at it, said it wasn't broken and poof. 3 minutes and I'm done.
It was a debilitating injury and painfully, got on a train to go home. I went to my own doctor and given crutches as it was obvious, the pain was so bad, walking was impossible. My doctor was incredulous the ER gave no indication of how serious the injury actually was, and no offer for crutches of any medication, not even a wrap. Total indifference and zero care in the ER. A very strange experience.
So if one expects care of, say an American ER, be forewarned, it isn't the same physician care nor concern. It is quite amazing how health care here is money oriented with a lack of emotion. I know it can be everywhere, but it is shocking when it happens to you.
Luis David Yanez
Yes, but it has gotten noticeable worse with covid.
As I said in an earlier post, a friend of mine, 100% Japanese, ethnic Japanese, had almost a septic shock after multiple hospitals and clinics refused to actually see and diagnose a friend that had a simple bacterial skin infection.
He just needed to get antibiotics, that was all, but for about a month he went to different hospitals and clinics, all of them caring more about the fact that he had a fever (from the infection), and therefore he could have covid, than anything else.
Most places he went, either 100% refused to see him, or would just test him for Covid, and after getting a negative result they would just send him home with fever medication, never actually taking a look at his problem.
wallace
The situation in the article should never happen nor many others posted in the comments.
For three years I’ve attend my local hospital every three months. We are required to wear a mask and a machine checks our temperatures at the entrance but other that no problems. There is a wing for covid patients. During that time I have also made additional appointments without a problem.
Years ago in the middle of the night I had an emergency and was taken to hospital for an immediate operation. No problems with that.
Dirk T
I was generally satisfied with the healthcare I received in Japan, but once my daughter mangled her finger and we drove her to a nearby clinic. Two physicians looked at her wound and said they couldn't help and to take her elsewhere. That part I got. What I didn't get is they unwrapped the bandages on her finger, the ones that I had done, and left the wound exposed, telling us we had to go somewhere else. I protested and told them I expected the wound to be covered before we left and they grudgingly complied. A Japanese person would have simply left.
chotto_2
This country out-does itself in idiocy farily refularly.
He should sue the hosptial into the ground. At the hospital's expense.
Dirk T
A Japanese physician told me that the ambulance drivers, at least in our area, were not trained as paramedics, that they were merely drivers. That explains a lot.